Steve mate - hope you're well !!!! I've NOT forgotten your xerox's, gonna get to them over this weekend - IF, I can find a frikkin' xerox machine round here that works - I would scan em', but I'm having one or two problems AGAIN with my scanner and PSP8.

Hey Kev - my scanner works just dandy! So, ahem, send me the originals. I'll look after 'em

cheers
Steve

I have a question.

I know first editions. We call it "Shohan". My FPW's books are all "Shohan".

But......what exactly "Limited editions"? "Limited editions" does not exist in Japan. What is special? Book cover? Price? Signed? :confused:

AND, the Stringbean and the Stalkers CD liner notes OR in 'Shore View'.......

I can help with that. The CD and newspaper piece were loaded with typos. Here's how it should have read:

STRINGBEAN AND THE STALKERS
(at Ragin Cajun, Belmar, NJ)

The reactions run from "God, what are these guys doin’ playing here?" to "How long has this been going on and why hasn’t anybody told me about it?"

To answer the second question: It’s been going on every Sunday night since mid-1996. As for the first question: Damned if I know. But I don’t ask questions. I say nothing and just hope they never stop playing here.

Here is Ragin’ Cajun, a funky little 50-seat restaurant in an old converted house on Rte 35 across from the marina in Belmar, NJ, around the corner and down the road apiece from the legendary Jason’s. That’s right, a restaurant—not a bar, not a night club—and it doesn’t even have a liquor license (it's BYO). What it does have is the best Cajun food this side of the Delta; that’s the draw Monday through Saturday. But on Sunday nights, owner-chef Tracey Orsi provides another reason to be there: Stringbean and the Stalkers.

A typical Sunday night…

The Ragin’ Cajun crowd is an eclectic bunch, spanning the shore’s social strata: yachtsmen and fishermen wandering over from the marina, sun worshippers trekking from the beach, bohos and bikers, matrons and mademoiselles, Deadheads and demimondaines.

You can count on Ken Sorensen, aka Stringbean Walker, setting up early in a corner of the front room. After all, it’s his group. He’s tall, tan, and lean with sun-streaked blond hair. You see him and you think, Hell, with the beach only half a dozen blocks away, this must be a surfer band. Then he unpacks all these Hohners from his little black doctor bag and arranges them on the mixer box. When he fits one into the Strnad mike and clips that into the harp rack around his neck, you start to get the idea you’re not going to hear Dick Dale covers.

Then Sonny Kenn starts setting up his gear. It’s the Gibson hollow body tonight, but sometimes it’s a white Strat. With his slicked back hair and long sideburns, Sonny could step onto the set of Grease and blend right into the cast. Okay, you think, so it’s gonna be rockabilly.

The bassist is usually Dave Meyers, and he’s got this serene air, this beatific smile. So maybe we’re gonna do a Woodstock thing?

The drummer tends to be whoever doesn’t have a gig somewhere else, and his kit rarely goes beyond brushes, snare, high hat, and ride. And if he’s late they start without him. When the clock hits seven, Stringbean and the Stalkers launch into their opener, Jimmy Reed’s mournful, languid "You Don’t Have to Go," and then all questions are answered:

It’s a blues thing.

Kenny Sorensen plays a sweet, sweet harp. He’s played a lot with Billy Hector and opened for the likes of B.B. King, James Cotton, and Dickie Betts. He owns that harp: it wails, howls, moans, raves, rants, and sometimes you’d swear it was an accordion. You just know he wore out the grooves on his Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter records as he was growing up, but Charlie Musselwhite and John Mayall are in there as well. Watch closely you notice he’s fingerpicking a counterpoint melody on his Guild acoustic as he blows.

Jersey Shore blues legend Sonny Kenn is on lead and he’s one of those rare guitarists who knows how to accompany a harmonica. Plus, he’s got so many styles tucked away in his repertoire that no song sounds the same twice. One time it could be Jimmy Rogers, then Elmore James, or Scotty Moore, or Buddy Guy or something completely out of left field. (Hell, I know I’ve heard him sneak Link Wray into a jam.) But those are simply influences—Sonny sounds like Sonny Kenn, which means any which way he pleases.

This is the real thing, Delta and Chicago blues, roots music played with exquisite skill and feeling, but without slavish aping of the originals. Serious blues by guys who are serious about the music but not overly serious about themselves. They toss in country blues for kicks (how about "Birmingham Daddy" from Gene Autry Sings the Blues?) and borrow from the Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan when it suits them. (After hearing Stringbean and the Stalkers’ take on "I Shall Be Released" I can no longer listen to the original.)

Look up "laid back" in Webster’s Colloquial Dictionary and I do believe it says, "see Stringbean and the Stalkers." No showboating here. No windmill strums, no agonized expressions to show how really hard it is to wring those notes from your ax. Everyone’s sitting, either on chairs or amps, and playing low (after all, the waitresses do have to take dinner orders). The music is up front, not the players. They tend to keep it down tempo, the songs leaning toward the likes of "Honest I do," "Long Distance Call," and "The Sky is Crying," but eventually the Prozac kicks in and they shake up the place with a smoking version of Elmore James’s "Mother-in-Law Blues" or an extended version of the Dead’s "Deep Ellum Blues" (where the jam often strays into "East-West" territory).

Stringbean’s pretty much laid back about his personnel as well. You never know who’s going to sit in. Chris Baron of the Spin Doctors, Buddy Cage of New Riders, Marc Muller from the Shania Twain band, they’ve all taken turns from time to time. When Neil Thomas isn’t on the road for zydeco band Loup Garou, he trains down from NYC and brings his accordion. Sometimes it gets a little crowded. In addition to the core four, I’ve seen a squeeze box, a mandolin, a second lead guitar, and a 300-pound Irishman playing lap steel all crammed into that corner of the front room. And the music was amazing.

No matter what the mix, the crowd is into it—the regulars and the lucky newcomers who saw the bright red flaming crawfish on the sign and decided they could do with a little Cajun cooking tonight. It’s back to the weekly grind tomorrow, but for now…wine and beer are flowing, jambalaya and etouffee are steaming on the table, Stringbean’s on the harp, and all’s right with the world.


F. Paul Wilson

I have a question.

I know first editions. We call it "Shohan". My FPW's books are all "Shohan".

But......what exactly "Limited editions"? "Limited editions" does not exist in Japan. What is special? Book cover? Price? Signed? :confused:

Cover, price, signed . . . probably all of these features, Kenji.

Also, they are very few of them published. A first edition publication may be five, ten, of fifteen thousand books, sometimes more. The limited editions of the Adversary Cycle for example are of two types; the Lettered edition -- only 26 sets -- and the Numbered Edition -- 1000 sets. Each of the 6 books in the Lettered Edition costs 250 dollars, whereas each book in the Numbered Edition is 60 dollars. And of course, they are all boxed with special covers.

Ken V.

Cover, price, signed . . . probably all of these features, Kenji.

Also, they are very few of them published. A first edition publication may be five, ten, of fifteen thousand books, sometimes more. The limited editions of the Adversary Cycle for example are of two types; the Lettered edition -- only 26 sets -- and the Numbered Edition -- 1000 sets. Each of the 6 books in the Lettered Edition costs 250 dollars, whereas each book in the Numbered Edition is 60 dollars. And of course, they are all boxed with special covers.

Ken V.

Wow, that's amazing! Thank you, Ken.

We(Japanese readers) have no idea about limited editions. So that's why limited editions are very valuable? It's interesting.


And....This is The Tomb;First editions! This is very rare.

Wow, that's amazing! Thank you, Ken.

We(Japanese readers) have no idea about limited editions. So that's why limited editions are very valuable? It's interesting.


And....This is The Tomb;First editions! This is very rare.

That has to be the most CHILLING interpretation of Rakoshi I could ever imagine.

Ken V.

That has to be the most CHILLING interpretation of Rakoshi I could ever imagine.

Ken V.

This book cover is vol2. Vol1 cover is Kolabati(she put on neckless).

This book cover is vol1. Vol2 cover is Kolabati(she put on neckless).

Ooohh!! Let's see that one too.....did you show that one in a past thread?

Ooohh!! Let's see that one too.....did you show that one in a past thread?

Actually, show that one in a past thread is Marc(thanks, Marc).

I don't know how he could find out, but if he has copy....Wow! I envy you, Marc!

Yay - mucho thanks FPW Sir !!!!!